Mini beauty products are the sweetest way to feed your make-up and skincare obsession

The rise of luxe beauty miniatures
means we can get a taste for more
products. Here are the cult buys
that need to be scooped up…

It’s official: we are like kids in a candy store. And it’s all thanks to a slew of our most cherished luxury products becoming available in teeny, tiny miniature versions. These are not just glorified travel-size toiletries.

Oh no, they’re a superior breed. Every detail has been replicated using similar materials to the original in these scaled-down replicas, made with such precision that it’s as if someone’s taken a laser gun and shrunk the contents of our bathroom shelves down by several sizes to fill our gym bags and handbags. And they’re unbelievably charming. A pinky finger-sized lipstick incites a chorus of joy from the entire Stylist office, while tiny tubs of loose powder trick people into thinking they’re macarons.

The excitement is real, but for a reason other than our love of all things little. Minis allow us to sample a taste of something without the huge investment, and taking that expensive moisturiser for a trial run before committing a day’s salary allows us to experiment with mini bottles and tubes of our own choosing.

Here’s to the small and mighty.

Clockwise from bottom left

DHC Cleansing Oil Mini (6.5cm high, 30ml)

Olive and rosemary-leaf oils dissolve make-up and dirt, then a splash of water emulsifies everything into a cleansing milk to wash away every trace.